MM giving up playcalling, Clements promoted to Asst. HC/Playcaller, Bennett promoted to OC

[JimmyTheKid]

I've never really been ''play call guy'' with MM,sure I've criticized certain calls during a game like every one has,but my thing with MM has always been his overall mentality and philosophy in big games as well as his in-game adjustments.

The Packers always have one of the top offenses and you have to give MM and his play-calling a decent amount of credit,even as someone who has been critical of him I'll give him credit where it's due.

The problem has been,and this has been the foundation of my beef with MM over the years is that when the Packers are in the big games and big moments MM seems to forget that he has one of the top offenses.That and MM kind of coaches with an arrogant ''we're the Packers and we're going to just show up and beat you'' mentality at times and then when the Packers get punched in the mouth they don't react well,that kind goes into the in-game adjustments thing.

To me it's about sticking with what is working and sticking with what got you there.

The Packers had a 12-4 record and found themselves in the NFC Championship game largley because of Aaron Rodgers and the offense,you don't go away from that and change your mentality when it matters most.

When MM was coming out for the 2nd half vs Seattle I wish someone would have reminded him he has Aaron **** Rodgers because he seemed to have forgotten.

Moving Clements to playcalling duties might not cure all or any of this,but at least it shows that the Packers know they have some issues and are at least trying to adress them,that's big IMO.

The more I think about it, and listen to sports radio, and read the blogs, the more I think McCarthy just wants to be able to concentrate on overseeing every facet of his team (and the game). Two inexcusable situations from the NFC Championship loss were the fake field goal fiasco and the fact that Rodgers and the offense supposedly had no idea Richard Sherman was playing corner with one arm. If McCarthy didn't have to worry so much about the next set of plays, and could concentrate on in-game situations and adjustments, I have no doubt that game turns out differently. That fake field goal was so bad, a reflection on how bad Slocum was. How you don't just concede 3 points in that situation is beyond comprehension. Its on Slocum, but definitely on McCarthy too. And not taking advantage of an obviously injured Richard Sherman is inexcusable. But not KNOWING he was hurt is even worse. There have been more than a few times over the years when McCarthy has made a bad challenge and everyone at home knew it was a bad challenge because we watched a couple replays before Mac went to his red flag. That always pissed me off. How should I, Joe Schmo fan, have more information than the Head Coach/Play Caller/Game Manager? McCarthy thought he could do it all. He was wrong. Wish he would've come to this realization earlier. Probably cost the Packers at least one Super Bowl.

[Kerb Hohl]

Two inexcusable situations from the NFC Championship loss were the fake field goal fiasco and the fact that Rodgers and the offense supposedly had no idea Richard Sherman was playing corner with one arm..

I agree with the general premise that I like McCarthy to have the ability to be a bit more of the CEO. However, how many times did Hoodie/Brady throw at Sherman, who was still playing with the injury? He may not have been grimacing in pain, but he was still hurt, and it didn't matter.

Also, having McCarthy be the CEO and be able to oversee things like the fake FG will be good. That said, a **** 10+ year veteran coach should be able to know that situation as well (Slocum).

[KidA24]

Two inexcusable situations from the NFC Championship loss were the fake field goal fiasco and the fact that Rodgers and the offense supposedly had no idea Richard Sherman was playing corner with one arm..

I agree with the general premise that I like McCarthy to have the ability to be a bit more of the CEO. However, how many times did Hoodie/Brady throw at Sherman, who was still playing with the injury? He may not have been grimacing in pain, but he was still hurt, and it didn't matter.

Also, having McCarthy be the CEO and be able to oversee things like the fake FG will be good. That said, a **** 10+ year veteran coach should be able to know that situation as well (Slocum).

Apples & Oranges, Seattle had lost another DB and was playing their 4th and 5th DBs in coverage. They picked on the weakest link.

Sherman very well could've been the weakest link on the field after he got hurt, especially on a bubble screen where he needed to tackle. The world may never know....

[Kerb Hohl]

Yeah, I'm not completely absolving not going at Sherman, but it's just another "duh, you should have done that coach" statement that I'm not sure is as big of a deal as is being made out to be. We will really never know.

[WiscoKing13]

Against this decision, a big over reaction from the SEA game IMO.

[PkrsBcksGphsMqt]

We're hiring the Oklahoma Dline coach? Per my ESPN notifications on my phone.

[El Duderino]

Super excited to hear about how much smarter every fan is than Tom Clements next year when it comes to play calling.

Absolutely no question about it. I'm fine with the switch, but i have zero doubt that come next year in any close games or losses, Clements will get ripped on in game threads for

1. Either running the ball to much if the running game goes through a stretch where it's not productive, but then will also get shredded for not running enough if the passing game is struggling. That's a lock even if posters don't know when Rodgers changes from a run to pass or the reverse.

2. Rodgers throws a long pass on third and short and it's incomplete, but if instead that pass is completed, it's a smart play call. Of course few will have any clue if Rodgers chose the long pass based on what alignment the defense was in and thus he decides to skip on the short pass built into the play and instead chose the over the top option.

3. Not enough screens or slants are thrown to the liking of posters in a given close game.

Basically when things go well and the offense is executing great, the players will get praised in game threads like "Jordy!", "Cobb!", "Lacy!", "Rodgers!", etc, but if the exact same play call backfires in key spots, there will be plenty of WTF kind of play call was Clements thinking there?

Get productive runs to eat up clock with a small lead late, plenty of "Lacy!" posts, but have those runs get stuffed, the posts change to why the hell is Clements being so conservative?

FWIW, play calling certainly isn't irrelevant, but the execution by the players on the field is vastly more important. A third and 6 draw play which gains 14 looks brilliant and moronic is stuffed for two yards. Bevell looked incompetent for 56 minutes until his players finally starting executing. So count me as skeptical that we'll see a really noticeable difference for the better under Clements, but will love to be wrong..

[El Duderino]

When MM was coming out for the 2nd half vs Seattle I wish someone would have reminded him he has Aaron **** Rodgers because he seemed to have forgotten.

Well, Aaron Rodgers had a 55 passer rating in that game so one could argue that they might have lost the game with 6 minutes to go if he came out throwing it a bunch (granted, they didn't have a ton of drives to throw it all over the field).

2nd half:
Drive 1: Run, run, pass, punt
Drive 2: Pass, pass, pass, pass (sack), punt
Drive 3: Run, run, run (32 yards), penalty, run, run, pass, run, pass, pass - Finished with 2 incompletions, FG
Drive 4: Run, run, pass, punt
Drive 5: Run, run, run, punt
Drive 6: The comeback drive for the FG - mostly passing

Drive 5 is the one everyone is pissed at. Until the comeback drive, Rodgers was passing at like a 20% clip in the 2nd half. Drive 3 which put them in position to nearly put the game away was all done on the ground. What more should MM have done? I think if it wasn't 3rd and 15 and Rodgers wouldn't have been hurt, he'd have let him throw on drive 5. Other than that, running was working and passing was not.

A few thoughts

Rodgers for whatever reason hasn't played all that well in some of the Packers playoff losses. There were obviously a myriad of reasons why we lost that game, but clearly to me one was that Rodgers was pretty mediocre. Yea Seattle has a very good pass defense, but in a game like that he needed to play more like the MVP that he is. I'd excuse the injury factor more had the Seattle front four caused more pressure, but in general he had decent time to throw.

I agree with some here that overall the offense seemed to conservative in the 2nd half trying to just kill the clock. To a degree i can understand since Seattle wasn't moving the ball at all, Aaron was off, and the running game had been pretty productive, but just one TD could have been a dagger before that later chaos happened.

On that fateful drive five, i think the first play screwed up everything. That first play was a run as it probably should have been, but Lacy was dropped for a 5 yard loss. A huge killer in that situation. Had he just gained a yard or two it changes a lot. Now McCarthy instead is staring at 2nd and 15. Odds drop dramatically of getting a first down, so passing and risking a clock stopping incomplete pass is more troubling. A run on the next play loses 2 more yards, now it's 3rd and 17. You have to run it there then. If the line doesn't get destroyed on first down though and say it ends up 3rd and 5-6 yards to go instead of 17 to go, a pass very well could have been called to ice the game. As a topper, Mastay shanks the punt and doesn't pin Seattle deep.

Certainly there were many really game altering plays in those last five minutes, but one forgotten play was that largely drive killing 5 yard loss on first down after the Burnett INT. It pretty much forced run calls on the next two plays and a punt.

[Thunder Muscle]

I agree, how different is Clements going to be than McCarthy? And really, I wonder if 12 is going to get full reign of the calls and will just work with Clements more closely since that is his guy. I don't know what I think. Bill Johnson (G&GT) suggesting this was a power play by Rodgers, I don't know if that extreme but had some interesting points.

I do like McCarthy being able to have his pulse on more than play calling.

[humanrefutation]

A slew of coaching changes were formally announced today. Clements is indeed becoming assistant HC and the playcaller, while Edgar is becoming the OC. The others:

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/12316 ... m-clements

• Quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt also will coach receivers, a position previously held by Bennett.

• Ron Zook was promoted to special teams coordinator. The former University of Florida and Illinois coach was a special teams assistant last season under Shawn Slocum, who was fired last month.

• Jason Simmons was promoted to special teams assistant.

• Former Oklahoma defensive line coach and co-defensive coordinator [Jerry Montgomery] was hired to help with the defensive front, while former San Francisco 49ers offensive line coach [Mike Solari] was hired to assist offensive line coach James Campen.

Really like the Solari hire.

[JimmyTheKid]

I agree, how different is Clements going to be than McCarthy?

Who knows? Maybe Clements has a pair of balls behind/under his penis.

The worst Mac quote from the press conference was "This is something I've given a lot of thought, a decision that's taken years to make." Better late than never I guess. But I wish he would have gone through with it sooner.

[Kerb Hohl]

I like it from the standpoint that McCarthy can now be the CEO and oversee much more.

From the playcalling standpoint, I'm still wondering if anyone has an example of a game that they've lost due to him being a conservative coach (by the way, he's not even that conservative) in the last 5 years or so until Seattle where EVERYTHING went wrong.

[th87]

I never had an issue with MM's play calling on individual plays, but didn't like the playing it safe routine (run, run, pass) after getting a 2 score lead. I've taken a look at the summaries of all games under MM and Rodgers, and saw an overly high number of games where we take a big lead, but end up winning by only one possession (and often on a defensive stop). I don't think that needs to happen.

[chuckleslove]

I never had an issue with MM's play calling on individual plays, but didn't like the playing it safe routine (run, run, pass) after getting a 2 score lead. I've taken a look at the summaries of all games under MM and Rodgers, and saw an overly high number of games where we take a big lead, but end up winning by only one possession (and often on a defensive stop). I don't think that needs to happen.

To play devil's advocate, that is a lot of teams. There is a lot of parity in the league and it is rare for teams to get blown out. Sure on a week to week basis there is almost always a blowout or two, but the vast majority of games are relatively close even if a team jumps out to an early lead.

[El Duderino]

I never had an issue with MM's play calling on individual plays, but didn't like the playing it safe routine (run, run, pass) after getting a 2 score lead. I've taken a look at the summaries of all games under MM and Rodgers, and saw an overly high number of games where we take a big lead, but end up winning by only one possession (and often on a defensive stop). I don't think that needs to happen.

I'm glad we'll have a new voice calling plays, we'll see if it helps in the playoffs going forward, but Aaron has to play better also. He hasn't really played that well in most of our playoff losses.

It took me awhile to read articles about the Seattle loss and McGinn did a piece about Rodgers play in that game after he got to watch the coaches film. The article didn't paint a good picture of his play in that game, he struggled in the 2012 playoffs loss to the Giants, and wasn't anything special in the loss at home to SF last year.

Hard to figure out why this has happened with Aaron.

[Sky Bucks]

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/packers/uw-defensive-coordinator-dave-aranda-interviewed-with-packers-b99443337z1-291566391.html?ipad=y

Would have been interesting

[Balls2TheWalls]

The problem I have seen with McCarthy's playcalling is that it is generally obvious what we are doing. Too often we run the ball against 8 and 9 man boxes against teams that know we are trying to run to kill clock. Run, run, run, punt possessions are unforgivable unless you are up 3 touchdowns and are trying to mercy kill the clock. Run, run, pass, punt possessions are just as bad when you are ahead, because we have made it clear that we are not all that tricky in our play calling. We run the ball straight ahead into huge boxes in order to set up 1, maybe 2, play action plays on the day. We are not an equal tendency play calling team. We need to put our playmakers on the field and make teams respect both the run and the pass on every down.